The Best Monster Cookies

The best monster cookies are loaded with peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and m&m’s! They are thick, chewy, and a soft-baked cookie, with a surprise ingredient, that are addictive and delicious.

MONSTER COOKIE RECIPE

These monster cookies are the most frequently made cookie at our house. They are seriously so thick, chewy, with slightly crunchy edges and a super soft baked center thanks to the secret ingredient; cornstarch.

If you’ve never added cornstarch to cookies then you have been missing out my friends. It’s only a small amount but it makes a HUGE difference in the texture of the cookie. Soft baked inside with a slightly chewy outside. Perfection♥

It’s funny that it has taken me so long to post this recipe seeing that THE most POPULAR recipe on the blog are these {no flour} monster cookie bars. Which are equally delicious, make an entire cookie sheet (perfect for a crowd), and they freeze so well.

There is just something about the combination of chocolate, peanut butter, oats, and m&m’s that appeals to all ages! No matter how I try I can never say no to one of these monster cookies.

I’ll be honest and say that these monster cookies have never lasted long enough for me to freeze them. I would assume they’ll freeze fine once baked. Just put one in the microwave for a few seconds or leave out on the counter for a bit.

These cookies stay so soft so I always put them in the cookie jar or a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. But like I said, they normally disappear within a couple of days so I have not had much practice with storing them 🙂

Between lunch box snacks, after school snacks, treats for all the neighborhood kids these cookies never seem to last.

Tips & Tricks and how to make the best monster cookies

When the cookies come out of the oven they will still be puffy. Not flat like a normal cookie looks. If you want, there are two options. The first is to take the bottom of a glass cup and gently press down on the tops of the cookie to flatten them slightly and make them look more like a cookie. Or, you can press some additional m&m’s on tops of the cooked cookies and while you do that, the cookie will naturally “un-puff” and look more normal.

I always just press additional m&m’s on tops of the cookies when they come out. I like this option better because the cookie still stays nice & puffy which is how we like them.

I always, and I prefer, to use the mini m&m’s and miniature chocolate chips. With the mini size there is more to go around so every single bite gets some chocolate!

It’s super important to beat the sugars and butter together for at least 2 minutes. It may seem like a really long time and totally unnecessary, but you need to do it. It gets the sugar incorporated into the butter and it’s nice and fluffy.

You definitely do not want to overbake these cookies. REMEMBER that they will firm up and cook a bit more while they are cooling on the cookie sheet.

If you love monster cookies then try these other family favorites too!

Be sure and watch the recipe video to see how to make the best monster cookies

The best monster cookies are loaded with peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, and m&m's! They are thick, chewy, and a soft-baked cookie, with a surprise ingredient, that are addictive and delicious.

Course:
Dessert

Cuisine:
American

Keyword:
cookies, dessert, monster cookies

Servings: 30cookies

Calories: 190kcal

Ingredients

1/2cupbutter, softened

1cupbrown sugar

1/2cupcreamy peanut butter

1large egg

2teaspoonsvanilla extract

3/4cupall-purpose flour

1teaspoonbaking soda

1teaspooncornstarch

1/4teaspoonbaking powder

1/4teaspoonsalt

1 1/2cupsquick oats

1cupmini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1cupmini M&M candies

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or use a silpat liner.

In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer) cream together the butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Mix in the egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Add the oats, chocolate chips, and M&M candies. Mix on low speed just until dough is combined.

Use a small/medium cookie scoop, or about 1-2 tablespoons cookie dough, and place on the baking sheets. They should look like golf balls.

Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown and the top still looks slightly undercooked.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

** For more of a cookie shape, take the bottom of a glass cup and gently press down on the cookie a few minutes after they come out of the oven OR just press some additional m&m's on tops of the cooked cookies and that will naturally press them down into more of a cookie shape, I always do this and it works so well. The cookies don't spread much at all while baking.

Recipe Notes

Natural peanut butter does not work well in this recipe.

Press some additional m&m's on top of the cookie dough balls, before putting cookie sheet in the oven, for a pretty presentation. Or press some m&m's on top of the cookies after they come out of the oven to naturally press down the cookies into more of a cookie sheet. Hard to explain in words, but if you try it, you'll know what I mean.

Use the bottom of a glass cup to gently press the cookie down when you take them out of the oven. Or leave as is for a puffy, round cookie.

I have also made giant monster cookies. Form 1/4 cup of dough into a ball and then slightly flatten on the cookie sheet. Bake for about 11-13 minutes.

2-3 minutes will seem like a long time to mix the sugars, peanut butter, and butter but it's really important to do it for about that long. The dough will be much lighter in color and look fluffy. That's when you know you have blended it long enough.

I prefer to use salted butter.

Save this recipe and PIN IT to Pinterest for later ♥ ♥

Here is the original photo. New pictures have been added and text updated slightly.

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61 Comments

Abby

October 20, 2016 at 8:30 pm
Hi,
these look and sound wonderful, but we have nut allergies so do you have any suggestions on what we can use in place of the peanut butter ?? I really appreciate an& al advise you can give.
Thanks

Together As Family

October 20, 2016 at 9:09 pm
Hey Abby! On my {no flour} monster cookie bars post, lots of readers commented with replacements for the peanut butter. If I remember right some were sunflower butter or nut butter. I don't have the allergies to deal with, so I have never tried anything other than peanut butter. I can't be of much help but I know readers commented on this post https://togetherasfamily.com/2015/08/no-flour-monster-cookie-bars/ with their experience of substituting the peanut butter. Hope that helps :)

Marin

Together As Family

August 13, 2018 at 2:42 pm
Oh darn. I would guess either too much flour or the big reason (and most likely) is that maybe you used natural peanut butter. Natural does not have as much moisture as good old regular peanut butter, so I always suggest using regular peanut butter when baking with it.

Erica

Together As Family

June 17, 2017 at 11:39 pm
Yes you could. It may change the texture a bit because old fashion oats can make cookies spread slightly more. I've never used whole oats so not sure how much it would change things. It is usually just fine to interchange the oats in recipes so you should be ok. I love the quick oats because they provide a chewier cookie and a thick, puffy cookie too.

Kristyn Rae

Together As Family

October 2, 2018 at 1:30 pm
So happy to hear! Yea, old-fashioned will work just fine. I tend to prefer the quick oats cause of the finer texture. But with the old-fashioned oats you get lots of texture and chew in the cookie. Both are really good. Sometimes I will even do half of each. Thanks for coming back to leave your comment.

Hannah

Together As Family

June 24, 2017 at 8:12 pm
Natural peanut butter is drier and thicker so it tends to produce a dry and crumbly cookie. You could always try it. It would still work but the results would be a bit different. It also may just be a personal preference too, some people are ok with using natural peanut butter in desserts.

Together As Family

Jamie

June 26, 2017 at 1:09 pm
WOW!! I made these for a teacher gathering and was expecting a heavy, thick monster cookie texture (which I don't really like, but I had the ingredients so I thought'd I'd make them anyways.) Well...this cookie is NOT THAT!! It is amazing, light, flavorful and all around GREAT! This will be my go-to cookie from now on! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us all! :)

Together As Family

Berit

Together As Family

July 18, 2017 at 12:22 pm
No it doesn't. Dark will make the cookies a darker color. I've just always used light brown sugar and prefer the taste. Dark brown sugar also has a stronger molasses flavor so that might come through in the cookie.

Marissa

July 30, 2017 at 3:21 pm
I've made monster cookies in the past and they're some of my favorite. However with this recipe, for some reason I couldn't get them to really bake. After 8 minutes in the oven, they had not flattened even a little bit and looked exactly the same as when I put them in. I kept putting them back in for 5 minutes at a time, and after about 20 mins, they still didn't look any different. What's going on?

Together As Family

July 30, 2017 at 7:39 pm
As the recipe notes, the cookies will not flatten themselves while baking in the oven. Because of all the peanut butter and oats they don't spread at all. I mentioned in the recipe that you can leave as is, or when they come out of the oven gently press on them with the bottom of a glass cup. Or, you can gently press down the top of the dough balls before you bake them in the oven. Hopefully that helps.

Together As Family

September 4, 2017 at 3:29 pm
This is the 3rd time I'm making these. Turned out great everytime. I use coconut sugar in place of brown sugar - works great. Last time I replaced the butter with coconut oil. Easy substitutes- I'm not good at doing coconut flour or almond flour replacements. However, I did use Einkorn wheat flour & that also turned out fine as expected. This recipe is very forgiving. Thanks for sharing it!

Erin

Together As Family

September 8, 2017 at 9:41 pm
Great! That's good to know you can use the almond butter in place of peanut butter. I've never tried that but now I kind of want to. And, I happen to have a jar of that same Costco almond butter in my pantry. I love Costco :) !

Angela

September 18, 2017 at 3:21 pm
Under your notes section it say to mix the "sugars", peanut butter and butter for 3-4 minutes. I have a recipe that uses both regular and brown sugar, but I only see brown sugar listed in your ingredients. Is there an ingredient missing or was this a typo? The cookies look yummy and I look forward to trying these.

Alyssa

Together As Family

November 11, 2017 at 1:45 am
You don't have to use it. The purpose of the cornstarch is for a soft cookie texture. I love what it adds to a cookie, but you don't have to add it. Just simply leave I out 😁

Katie

Together As Family

December 20, 2017 at 1:41 pm
Did I not add that in there? I'll have to go double check that. I apologize. The recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies but you could get less or more depending on the size of cookies you make :)

Together As Family

Sarah

February 15, 2018 at 5:42 pm
I’m not usually a big fan of monster cookies, and had never made them. But my husband requested them, so I gave these a try, and they are delicious! Hopefully there will be some left when he gets home from work!

Stacey

February 25, 2018 at 11:34 am
I didn't love these. 😭 I have made monster cookies tons of times, and these are just different. Too light fluffy & not chewy as you would expect with a monster cookie. I'm not sure if it's too much flour, too much soda, not enough oats, the lack of granulated sugar or what, but I was really disappointed. I should add, they baked great and look really pretty, the taste is just 'meh'. I'm guessing there are people that prefer light & fluffy to chewy, so if that's your thing then these are for you! (Not knocking the author or recipe- just trying to help the next gal looking at reviews before baking!)

Natalie

December 23, 2018 at 7:33 pm
Thank you for posting your experience with these! I have been making monster cookies for over 20 years and everyone always asks me to make them for events and get togethers. I have never seen this type of monster cookie recipe with flour, baking powder, cornstarch and no white sugar. I was debating trying it since I was asked by my mother-in-law to make these (again) for our Christmas get together, but if there's a chance they won't turn out as yummy, I better not chance it!😂 I would be so in trouble!!

Alexa

February 27, 2018 at 11:59 pm
I can’t wait to try these! Monster cookies are my husband’s favorite. I am curious though if the dough freezes well & if it would change how they are baked.
I’d love to have a large batch of dough in the freezer so I could bake a few fresh cookies at a time when we’d like to have some.

Together As Family

March 2, 2018 at 8:51 pm
I actually freeze the cookies after they've been baked. Pull one out and eat it cold or let it sit on the counter for a few minutes. I have never tried freezing the uncooked dough balls but I am sure it would work just fine. Leave them out on the cookie sheet for a bit to soften up and then bake according to the recipe.

May 4, 2018 at 1:42 am
[…] Speaking of recipes the neighbors surprised us awhile back with the most delicious Monster Cookies I have ever tasted. I haven’t made them yet, because I somehow know that I would secretly […]

Jill

September 25, 2018 at 11:50 am
These got rave reviews in my office. I HAD to take them to work so I wouldn't eat all of them by myself. I only had Jif natural peanut butter and old fashioned oats on hand. I worried they would come out a little too dry, so I added 1 tsp of olive oil to my peanut butter to make it creamier, and that worked really well. (Jif is probably more creamy than some natural nut butters so you may need more/less depending). They were a bit too crumbly but that was probably due to the old fashioned oats. I also added a few reeces pieces into my measurement of m&ms for extra peanut butter goodness. Thanks for the recipe!

Together As Family

September 28, 2018 at 1:45 pm
What a great idea to add some oil to the peanut butter. So smart. And I know what you mean about not eating them all yourself. Luckily, my kids gobble these up in no time flat so they don't stick around long :)

Bethany

October 17, 2018 at 4:37 pm
I was so excited about this cookie. It looks like perfection. I made it though and thought I followed the recipe precisely. But the cookies are flat! Flat as paper. What did I do wrong?

Together As Family

October 28, 2018 at 8:49 pm
The only things I can think of is maybe you mis measured the flour or oats. The butter was melted. Too much butter? I am not sure. So sorry they turned out that way. That’s so odd.

BETHANY CURTIS

October 30, 2018 at 2:07 am
I figured it out after thinking about it all night...I doubled every ingredient except the flour, ha ha. Totally my fault. They ended up being delicious and looking thick and fluffy, exactly how I wanted! Thanks!

Welcome

Hello! I'm Jessica and I am always in my kitchen cooking & baking for my family and friends. My happy place is sitting, Together as Family, at the dinner table over a delicious meal and spending time together. Join me as I share easy and simple family favorite recipes.